PACE today called on member states’ health authorities to ensure that migrants and refugees have effective and free access to healthcare from the moment of first arrival, including mental healthcare. Member states should also guarantee these individuals access to vaccination, medicines, and screening for transmissible diseases, chronic diseases and long-term illnesses.
In this context, health authorities should prevent public and private healthcare providers from reporting migrants who are irregularly present in the country to the immigration authorities, emphasises the resolution adopted by PACE, based on the report by Pelin Yılık (Türkiye, NR).
The parliamentarians stated that a number of factors were hindering access to healthcare for migrants, including legal and administrative barriers; insufficient availability or accessibility of healthcare services; inadequate reception conditions and precarious living situations; as well as individual challenges such as limited knowledge of rights, fear of approaching authorities or language barriers.
Furthermore, the Assembly called on member states to strengthen their domestic legal frameworks to include migrants and refugees in national health insurance schemes, and to move towards a universal healthcare framework for them – in line with the central political commitment of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Finally, PACE recommended strengthening investment in preventive and primary care, particularly in reception and detention centres, in so-called “hotspots” and in hospitals.
